


chances taken

by elliptical



Category: Homestuck
Genre: End of Act Six Spoilers, Gen, Post-Update Fic, Strider Manpain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 14:52:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6474694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliptical/pseuds/elliptical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>he didn't want to face his own death and</p><p>haha</p><p>the universe likes being ironic because this is the opposite of what he meant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	chances taken

**Author's Note:**

> so....... this is probably the last update fic... i'll ever write.... if u don't count post finale fics

dave is. so tired.

they're going to die. he can feel it. he's not sure dirk can. he thinks terezi probably can, but she won't admit it, won't let anything show - she's all concentration and spark and fire, reaching out with Mind to hit his Time powers and

see, the thing about the heat of battle is that your heart drums so fast and your adrenaline spikes and the whole world becomes cold and clear. seconds lengthen. perception slows down. but your mind ticks like a clock and you can only focus on the here, the now - you have to observe, there's no room for anything else.

except that since he's a little busy being a time guy, the battle is different. literally slowed down, stop, skip backwards, timestream spun under his hands like a turntable. fast forward. rewind. like playing on one of those vcrs but you have to anticipate the future and think fast, haha

they're going to die. they're underprepared. even with him and terezi kicking ass - and they are kicking ass - they're going to tire out. tz is mortal. it's a coin toss for whether he and dirk will go belly-up heroic style, clock wound down slow ticktock and stopped. even using his time powers, FUCK he didn't even want to use his time powers it's too easy to slip to fall through the cracks doomed daves piling up and

stop.

pause.

breathe, calm.

he just needs to keep going. he can't freeze up. he just needs to keep going, keep fighting, keep on the wavelength with terezi and keep dirk alive and dirk will tear open some motherfucking souls and then they can pant and dissolve into a few hysterics. there's no fucking TIME for emotional horseshit right now.

ahahaha.

he went over this with karkat, back on the meteor, back when they were preparing / pretending this wouldn't happen / preparepretending. over how to keep the sword from slipping through his fingers. over how to keep going even when panic threatened to claw his insides out. over how to keep moving moving moving just stay out of danger stay out of fucking danger.

they overlooked how fucking tiring combat is. they have to end this fast or else one of them is going to fall and then the rest will and then it's all over and if they can't hold these jacks off then how will the others -

this is not what dave needs to be thinking about right now.

except then it's all he's thinking about, because the blade is at dirk's throat and it's. it's only a few seconds but the seconds are forever when you're a god of time. dave stops, freezes, skips back, watches, freezes again, looks for a way out. he can't get dirk out of that headlock without getting his throat slit. it's too quick, there's no fucking -

dirk locks eyes with him. as close as he can get through the shades, anyway. tilts his head.

the three of them, lined up. the blade in dave's hand. the only clear shot they're going to have, the half second left before the jacks recognize their vulnerabilities.

bro would do it in a second. dave recognizes this, sees bro in dirk for a terrifying nanosecond, looks into his guardian's face. bro would have done it because it needed to be done, and bro would have spat on dave for hesitating, for daring to let emotion get in the way of things. for feeling. striders don't feel. striders keep moving and if dave fucks this up they're all going to die and it's going to be all his fault and they're never going to get another window of opportunity and it'll be ALL HIS FAULT

but dirk's jaw is set with an urgentness to it that makes dave's heart drop and he remembers yeah. dirk's not quite bro. hasn't been bro yet. let him air his grievances and talked quietly to him, wrapped an arm around him and let him be an emotional shitbaby. dirk's kind of a fucked up guy, dave figures, but not quite like bro - not quite irreparable, he wants to fix this, fix himself, because

because

because

because dirk loves people like bro never did, never seemed to. dirk loves his friends. dirk does what needs to be done not to assuage a masculinity complex but because the ends always justify the means when the people he loves make it out alive.

if jack cuts his brother's throat then the death is heroic.

if dave cuts it then dirk's got a chance, please, please, please.

(please, please, please)

the precipice teeters. dave can't pause forever, the window of opportunity shrinks. he's so fucking tired. he thinks of karkat. of john. of jade. of rose. of terezi. he thinks of the universe they're to inherit and the part he has to play and about how it won't hurt, not really, he didn't want to face his own death and

haha

the universe likes being ironic because this is the opposite of what he meant.

dirk's teeth clench.

dave thinks, one more time. one last time. here we go.

he raises his sword.


End file.
